NEW RULES FOR BEST PICTURE OSCAR

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the group that hands out the Oscars each year — has again revamped the rules to qualify for a best picture nomination. Two years after expanding the number of nominations to ten, the academy said on Wednesday that it will introduce a new system under which a film would have to receive at least 5 percent of first place votes in order to be nominated. (Under academy procedures, the 6,000 voting members rank their preferences for best picture on a scale from 1 to 10.) As a result, the Academy is expected to come up with between five and ten nominees for best picture. In an interview with today’s (Thursday) Los Angeles Times, veteran studio publicist Terry Press, who now heads up her own marketing company, remarked that the change will make the Oscar race “more competitive” and certainly boost ad spending for “for your consideration” advertising. “Sales reps at the trades,” she speculated, are probably “sending floral tributes over to the academy.”